Computers, electronic goods and optical components are the top three sectors in Taiwan that are benefiting from transferred orders and production relocation, said a Ministry of Economic Affairs report released yesterday examining the effects of the trade dispute between the US and China.
US TARIFFS
The US has imposed tariffs of 10 to 25 percent on 6,842 Chinese products to date, which translates into 47.7 percent of overall US imports from China last year in monetary terms.
Computers, electronic goods and optical components accounted for 25.7 percent of the US$257.7 billion of Chinese goods that the US imported last year, the report said.
Electrical equipment came in second, accounting for 13.2 percent of the total, while machinery equipment followed with 10 percent, it said.
The nation is starting to witness a positive impact from the trade dispute, as computers, electronic goods and optical components reported 16.5 percent year-on-year growth in output in the first six months of this year, the ministry’s Department of Statistics said.
That is mainly due to an increase in US orders for network communications equipment and companies relocating their production lines for servers back to Taiwan, the department said.
Production value of network communications equipment rose 45.8 percent year-on-year and that of servers surged 400 percent, the department added.
In terms of exports, shipments to the US of computers, electronic goods and optical components soared 90.1 percent year-on-year, while shipments of electrical equipment grew 16.2 percent and those of machinery equipment increased 8.9 percent, the report found.
EXPORTS UP
Taiwan’s overall exports to the US increased by 17.4 percent in the first six months, the department said.
Exports to the US of Taiwanese equivalents of the Chinese goods targeted by the tariffs increased by 23.5 percent, the department said, adding that the increase was due to production relocation and order transfers.
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